Explores discriminatory employment practices and job segregation and examines the effectiveness of affirmative action in combatting job discrimination. Identifies the most effective affirmative action practices and investigates their effects on women and minority groups and on other stakeholders. Discusses policy implications.

This is a guide to help you as an employer design and implement programs to ensure fair and equal treatment for all persons, regardless of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, in all employment practices.

Affirmative action is still a reality of the American workplace. How is it that such a controversial Federal program has managed to endure for more than five decades? Inside Affirmative Action addresses this question. Beyond the usual ideological debate and discussions about the effects of affirmative action for either good or ill upon issues of race and gender in employment, this book recounts and analyzes interviews with people who worked in the program within the government including political appointees. The interviews and their historical context provide understanding and insight into the policies and politics of affirmative action and its role in advancing civil rights in America. Recent books published on affirmative action address university admissions, but very few of them ever mention Executive Order 11246 or its enforcement by an agency within the Department of Labor - let alone discuss in depth the profound workplace diversity it has created or the employment opportunities it has generated. This book charts that history through the eyes of those who experienced it. Inside Affirmative Action will be of interest to those who study American race relations, policy, history and law.

"This book answers this important question. It examines explanations put forth by social scientists, finding various degrees of truth in most of them. Some situate the problem in the policy itself, suggesting that affirmative action functions as a governmentally sanctioned form of reverse racism or sexism, or that is is ineffective or socially disruptive. Such explanations may sound plausible, but they are incorrect. Other explanations locate the problem in the people who react to the policy, citing studies that document the links between ignorance, prejudice, and opposition to affirmative action. Yet even well-informed egalitarian people sometimes oppose affirmative action.".

The affirmative action program has engendered a hostile reaction in many quarters. Originating in presidential executive orders and civil rights legislation, the program is intended to combat institutional race and sex discrimination by encouraging public and private organizations to go beyond the mere cessation of formal discriminatory practices—to enact their own programs to end unfair practices. In contrast to the passive nondiscrimination of equal opportunity, affirmative action means that employers must act positively, affirmatively, and aggressively to remove all barriers, however informal or subtle, that prevent minorities and women from having equal access to all levels of the nation's educational, industrial, and government institutions. Is affirmative action, in fact, geared to equal opportunity? Or has it resulted in greater inequality for white males? The authors of this book empirically examine employment in government, industry, and higher education and enrollment in colleges and universities to determine the current status of women and minorities as employees and students. They also describe the machinery of affirmative action, its budget and staff problems, the compliance and enforcement processes, and the results of the program. Their final chapter includes a theoretical explanation for the very apparent resistance to affirmative action and expresses their pessimism about the program's ability to accomplish its goals, especially in light of recent efforts to weaken its already limited power. They close with a discussion of the future of affirmative action and the likelihood of achieving equal opportunity in employment.